Mayor Joe Hogsett laughs with Department of Public Works staff as they repair potholes on S. Keystone Ave., Tuesday, January 24, 2017. Hogsett spoke with the media at the intersection of Keystone and Hanna. Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar

Mayor Joe Hogsett is planning to dramatically increase spending on transportation infrastructure projects, in part because of a new gas tax increase passed earlier this year by the state. Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar

Adam White, center, and others with the Department of Public Works speak with Mayor Joe Hogsett as he visited with them between potholes on S. Keystone Ave., Tuesday, January 24, 2017. Hogsett updated the media at the intersection of Keystone and Hanna, but he stopped to speak with the workers as they repaired the potholes. Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar

Adam White, left, and others with the Department of Public Works take a break from repairing potholes to speak with Mayor Joe Hogsett as he visited with them on S. Keystone Ave., Tuesday, January 24, 2017. Hogsett updated the media at the intersection of Keystone and Hanna on the pothole situation. Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar

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A pothole on a stretch of I-65 in Downtown Indianapolis caused as many as eight flat tires Tuesday morning, before crews from the Indiana Department of Transportation were able to fix it just before 7 a.m.(Photo: Michelle Pemberton/The Star file photo)Buy Photo

I was driving on Kessler Boulevard the other day, apologizing to my Honda for the latest refrigerator-sized pothole I’d slammed into, when it struck me: I have the solution to Indianapolis’ dangerous and downright embarrassing pothole problem.

And let’s be clear: Indianapolis indeed has a big pothole problem. This isn’t a nuisance. It’s a crisis.

The roads are simply not worthy of being the foundation of such a wonderful city – a city that has proven itself able to overcome daunting obstacles, embrace big opportunities, and fight outside its weight class time and again.

This is a city that can lure a Super Bowl, emerge as a serious finalist for Amazon’s second headquarters, and rightly be declared by many here and elsewhere as a shining example of urban revitalization. But year after year, we are reminded that it can’t get a handle on something as basic as fixing potholes, which is, of course, representative of a deeper infrastructure problem.

In a world filled with complex problems, this isn’t one of them. Roads wear down and they need to be repaved and repaired periodically. It’s not a complicated issue. But it’s a tough one, because the answer comes down to cold hard cash. And city government just doesn’t have much of that to spare.

I have a solution.

It’s called a commuter tax and it is an idea that raises howls from my fellow suburbanites every time it is unsuccessfully proposed. Yes, it angers many people. But it’s fair -- inherently and unquestionably fair -- and it would provide Indianapolis with a sustained pot of money that could be poured like asphalt into its road problems.

How would it work? Well, those of us who work in one county and live in another would be required to contribute a small amount of our income taxes to the county in which we work. Currently, only the county in which a worker lives receives a portion of his or her income tax revenue. The county that hosts the worker's job, the county that provides the roads to get to those jobs, the county that fixes the sewers workers rely on throughout the workday, the county that often subsidizes and lures those jobs with corporate tax breaks – well, it gets squat.

That, folks, is a pothole-sized example of unfairness.

And it helps explain a budget crisis that has prevented Indianapolis from effectively addressing the situation. Curse all you want next time you hit a pothole so deep it could house the Colts offensive line, but the bottom line is this: Indianapolis does not have the money to fill them all.

A lot of us benefit from jobs based in a county in which we do not live. We should appreciate what that county has done to attract the job, and we should understand that our vehicles contribute to the wear and tear on the roads that so many complain about. We should also understand that all of Central Indiana benefits from a stronger Indianapolis and from a more regional mindset.

The most recent commuter tax proposal went nowhere at the Statehouse in 2014, but it is worth revisiting. It would give the county that hosts a job one quarter of one percent of the income taxes collected from commuting workers’ wages. (That’s a whopping $250 a year on a $100,000 salary.) The money could come from an increase in the tax rate or a slight shift in how the current tax revenues are doled out. Either way, Indianapolis would receive roughly $25 million a year. Other counties would receive the same benefit from workers who travel in to work each day.

Along with others, I’ve written about this topic numerous times over the years. The reaction is always the same: righteous indignation. Most critics complain about the city, or about taxes, or about Democrats, or about the idea of having to pay more. What I rarely have heard is a debate about fairness, or an explanation for why we shouldn't all pay for the services we use.

To better pave the way forward, I have an idea:

In return for receiving millions more in taxes, Indianapolis would have to agree to two things. First, every penny must be spent on infrastructure projects that benefit commuters. Second, this money would be above and beyond what it spends on roads now. This is about improving a bad situation, not shifting around pots of money.

On Facebook and elsewhere, I’ve seen comments condemning the quality of Indy’s roads and comparing them to places like Fishers and Carmel. Such comments expose a lack of understanding of the unique fiscal, social and other challenges that larger and older cities like Indianapolis face. Others argue that the new gas tax should solve the problem. That will indeed help, but it's a state tax and it’s not the long-term solution to local problems.

The pothole situation in Indianapolis is, by any fair account, a disaster. It’s time to do something about it, and it is time for more of us to be part of the solution.